Mansour to Sisi: Pardons for protest law detainees will be your end

Jun. 04, 2014 12:35

Lawyer Mortada Mansour - YOUM7/Karim Abdul Aziz

By AYA IBRAHIM

CAIRO: “The beginning of the end of Egypt’s new President-elect Abdel Fatah al-Sisi will start if he pardons the Egyptian youth who were arrested under the protest law,” said lawyer Mortada Mansour Tuesday evening in Tuesday phone interview on Al Qahera Alyoum channel.

Mansour added that he would be the first to fight against Sisi in case he pardoned “youth who were arrested for defying the protest law.”

“Those [arrested youth] have been sabotaging the country since 2008, and you should take care of street children instead of them,” Mortada stressed. He added that “if Sisi takes care of the youth detained for breaking law, fearing from the old scarecrow of the U.S. and Britain, I am sorry this is the beginning of your end.”

The 2008 Egyptian general strike launched in Mahalla on 6 April 2008 against price rises, corruption and in solidarity with Mahalla workers, helped spark the 2011 Revolution which ousted former president Hosni Mubarak.

Leftist politican Hamdeen Sabbahi on April 6 vowed to release thousands of “political detainees” as well as to abolish the protest law if he were elected.

Sisi, however, did not mention anything regarding the protest law or the release of the political detainees.

The High Presidential Elections Committee (HPEC) announced Tuesday evening that Abdel Fatah al-Sisi would be Egypt’s second president since the January 25 Revolution, winning 23,780,104 votes compared to 757,511 garnered by Hamdeen Sabbahi.

Mansour who is head of Zamalek Sporting Club, officially announced his bid for the presidency on April 6, adding in a statement aired on state television that his platform “is aimed at restoring Egypt’s prestige and position among nations.” However, he announced on April 1 9 that he will withdraw from the presidential race.

Mansour is a lawyer who was elected president of the Zamalek football club on March 29. He was one of 25 defendants accused of hiring armed persons to attack protesters in Tahrir Square in what became known as the Battle of the Camels on Feb. 2, 2011.